


Back-up Plan

by Anarchyinplasma



Series: Life and Times of a Risen [12]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, character exploration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:46:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26046736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anarchyinplasma/pseuds/Anarchyinplasma
Summary: With the City potentially on the cusp of war, Fireteam Endymion get a back-up plan ready.
Relationships: Tallulah Fairwind/Raven Fairwind (Background)
Series: Life and Times of a Risen [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/643955





	Back-up Plan

**Author's Note:**

> So this one was fun to write, I like writing Arcturus and Raven as siblings bound by the Void so much, and Tallulah and Raven are just cute. I hope someone enjoys.

Drifter looks up as Arcturus traipses into his annex, making a pantomime face at the litres of water smattering across his floor from the Hunter's boots.  
"If it ain't my favourite vanguard snitch, I heard you're running back with Endymion now."  
"You heard correctly." Arcturus gives a shrug, "Why did you want to see me Drifter?"  
“What, a man can’t catch up with an old dark age friend?” Drifter gives a trademark crooked smile and starts to flip a gambit mark between his fingers with a soft tinkling sound. Arcturus gives the other Risen a flat stare and the man’s face returns to it’s flat guarded state.

“You remember the Dark Ages? When you’d keel over from hunger and your ghost would bring ya back hungry?”  
“Yes...?” Arcturus answers hesitantly, unsure of where Drifter is going with his line of enquiry.  
“Noticed that every one of the old dark age squads that are still alive are back together nowadays?”  
“Yes…” Arcturus replies slowly, sensing some roundabout connection starting to form.  
“Notice how we’re runnin’ head-first at a new dark age?”  
“Notice how you haven’t had any kind of acceptable crew in a long, long time Drifter.” Arcturus puts two and two together with a raised eyebrow and the Drifter scratches the back of his head sheepishly.  
“Yeah, ‘bout that…”

Arcturus’ follows his every movement as closely as possible, Drifter’s been ridiculously clever with his sleight of hand since he’s known him by his original name; but no cannon is drawn, and no glimmering mote signals an impending Taken monstrosity.  
“You think ol’ ‘Lulah an Raven Fairwin’ have a spot for ol’ Drifter if things go bad?”

For a second Arcturus is positive that he hadn’t heard that right, but the look on Drifter’s face tells him that no, he definitely did.  
“Tallu has never forgiven you for the mess you pulled in London, and while neither Raven or I will shoot on sight I’m not about to roll with you either.” Drifter’s face sinks for just a second before he covers it in his regular smile and Arcturus looks him in the eye. “Were you serious about Gambit being an attempt at salvation?”  
“‘Course I wa-” Drifter starts to drawl but stops at the look on Arcturus’ face and the mark in his fingers. “Yeah.” He mutters, quiet as a church mouse, “I ain’t about this big ol’ war, but the things I did, no matter how justified, man’s gotta atone for the worst of the bunch.”

Arcturus flips his mark over and lets Drifter catch it.  
“I’m not about to bring you into my family, but that’ll find you a crew, some of the fringe Hunters owe me from the Shadowsmith days.” He starts to turn on his heel when Drifter holds up a hand and rummages about in a pouch.  
“Genuine article.” He says, handing over a jade mark with his personal sigil instead of the regular design of a gambit token. Etched with his little stylised mote on both sides. “I owe you brother.” Arcturus slips the mark into his belt for Callahan to handle and turns away.

He checks through his possessions as he walks to the door, Nevicata is still there, both his cannons too. Drifter hasn’t lifted anything. Seems like he was at least a little serious after all. He turns the corner and heads up the stairs, pulling his hood up in the universal sign of a Hunter wishing to remain undisturbed. He loses himself in thought as he climbs the stairs to the tower proper, feels the overhead thunder rock his bones as he reaches the doorway and steps out into the dark morning and the driving rain. Raven stands from her slouch against the doorway and falls into lock-step with him as he heads up to the courtyard.

“As planned?” she asks him, hood tilted slightly in his direction, black hair flowing loose from the cowl and soaking as the rain gets heavier.  
“As planned by us both I think” Arcturus says in a monotone as they weave around small crowds of civilians huddled under umbrellas on their way home from the night shift and make their way onto the main lift in the centre of the courtyard, “not so sure if that’s a good thing or a bad one.”  
“Who knows with him.” Raven says as they take a place at the edge to observe everyone getting on and continue their conversation in the privacy of a bustling crowd.

There’s a tiny jolt as the lift sets off before it starts to smoothly descend towards the City, and Arcturus smothers a yawn as he leans on the railing to watch the ground approach. The cold cloying mist they’re descending into soaks into his skin, and he savours the feeling as he mulls over Raven’s words.  
“He seemed somewhat serious about the selling point.” he says after a moment, before another deafening crunch of overhead thunder grips his bones like iron for a moment and he barely hears Raven’s reply.  
“He’s also a damn good liar.”

The mass of civilians huddled together under ponchos and umbrellas around them shiver and huddle closer together like a flock of birds in snow, and Arcturus sighs.  
“Universal truth there if ever there was one.” Raven shrugs at that statement.  
“We got what we needed, and liar or not he’s always honoured his debts.” Arcturus nods.  
“Hence why we planned on him.”

They sink into the lowest layer of mist and Raven shivers, pulling her hood up a little further around her face. A second later there’s a clunk; the lift stops, the front railing folds down, and the group are beckoned off by the operator hunched in his brightly lit booth. The two Hunters walk off and split from the group of civilians, disappearing into the maze of the City.

“He made a pretty good point about something you know” Arcturus says as they turn into a back alley that will keep them away from the massive crowds that always clog the City’s main streets regardless of the weather.  
“Yeah?” Raven asks as they pass under a neon sign for a take-away restaurant.  
“He said all the dark age crews are getting back together because we know it’s going to get bad.” Raven makes a ‘tch’ sound.  
“It’s always been bad, post armageddon just seems better in comparison.”  
“True,” Arcturus concedes, “but he implied it was because a new dark age is coming, and if that’s true, a lot of the more recent boys, girls, and exos are in for a rude awakening.”  
“Won’t be exactly like the dark ages,” Raven says as their boots splash through a puddle, “no warlords, and there’ll be some kind of organisation no matter what as long as the Vanguard remain alive and kicking.” Arcturus lets out a breath and watches the steam dissipate in the cold air.  
“What if they don’t?” Raven gives him an odd look.  
“You know there’ll always be one kicking as long as we are.”

Arcturus smiles at that.  
“Very true, but you get my point.” Raven lets out a long sigh and her expression becomes crestfallen.  
“Yeah, I do.”

The rain gets even heavier as they walk on through empty streets and near deserted storefronts. Arcturus spots a hole-in-the-wall place he likes and they make a small detour. Coming away with two pastries wrapped in paper and a styrene box, the pastries they scarf down in the dry patch under a neighbouring shop’s awning before they continue on.  
“Dark age hunger will be a mess for anyone who doesn’t remember it.” Raven mentions as a city tram rushes past them on it’s tracks, splattering Arcturus’ shins with water as the rumble of the thunder overhead adds bass to her words.  
“He mentioned that too actually” Arcturus replies, reaching up to pull his hood a bit further forwards and keep the driving rain out of his eyes. “Asked me if I remembered keeling over from the hunger and coming back hungry.” He hears Raven draw a breath in through her teeth as a memory no doubt passes through her mind.  
“Lully and I used to eat stuff that was poison if we were at that stage, filled you up just a tiny bit before it took you out and you came back.”

A bright spear of lightning splits the sky from end to end over their heads and lights the entire street up as Arcturus goes to reply.  
“Look at what we’ve built.” he says with melancholy. “Remember the huts and the single weapon shop and putting the walls up?”  
“The old days.” Raven grins, then her smile wavers ever so slightly. “Life really does leave us behind in some ways doesn’t it.” Arcturus nods.  
“Sometimes I have to wonder if we’re really expected to survive all that long, maybe if we somehow end this war, every single one of us is pre-programmed to just keel over and cease existing.”

He rolls his shoulders under his armour, trying on some level to shed the weight of those thoughts that have plagued him in some form for a few hundred years now. He feels his necklace of Endymion’s marks holding over his heart and feels, oddly, a tiny sentiment of comfort. He takes a deep breath, filling his lungs with the scent of the city and more importantly the storm; and feels the long dormant connection in his light jump just a touch, the way it always does when thunder grips his bones like an iron vice and lightning splits the sky like the gods at war.

“I think we are meant to live.” Raven says, confidently, and Arcturus shoots her a questioning sideways look as they finally exit the shadow of the Tower and turn towards the rebuilt residential high-rises that denote the Guardian’s quarter. “We could have been brought back as soulless and unflinching, but we weren’t. We’re allowed to live, to eat, to drink, to feel hunger and fear; we’re allowed to fall in love.”

Arcturus hums as he considers that.  
“There’s the optimistic Raven I know and love. Always able to see the bright side of dying of starvation and heartbreak.”  
“Sorry” she murmurs and Arcturus shakes his head.  
“I said know and love, my little sister-in-the-void; you wouldn’t be you without that outlook, I know you miss her too.”  
“This was her weather.” Raven comments and Arcturus smiles and takes another deep breath of the storm.  
“Still feels like her.” He says as his lungs fill with the scent of lightning and another crack of thunder takes hold of his bones for a minute.  
“It really does.” Raven says, and then follows up with a mutter in her native tongue. “Espero que descanses bien, mi querida amiga.”

Mercifully the conversation soon turns to more idle banter than heavy philosophy and remembering the dead, and by the time they’ve reached Raven and Tallulah’s building the storm has cleared, leaving the world tinged with only the omnipresent scent of the iron and oil of the City and the rich texture of petrichor. Both of them wipe their boots on the mat inside the main door, and again when they reach the apartment where Tallulah is waiting for them.

They enter, hang their cloaks on the stand by the door, and switch their armour for more comfortable casual clothes, thanks to Callahan and Apollo.  
“Lully! We’re back! Brought you Tteokbokki!” Raven calls as they enter the sitting room, cradling the still-warm styrene box full of rice-cakes and sweet, spicy sauce in her arms. Mere seconds later Tallulah walks demurely into the room holding a pair of chopsticks, greets her wife with a kiss and Arcturus with a “the kettle just boiled” and tucks right into her food without a backwards glance.  
“Hungry Tallu?” Arcturus gives a snarky comment from the doorway as he exits, he doesn’t even get an answer, so he just thanks her for boiling the kettle for him and steps away to make himself a cup of tea.

“You got what you needed?” Tallulah asks him as he re-enters the room and takes a seat, holding his warm brew close to his chest.  
“Got what we needed.” Arcturus confirms, holding up the mark to show her before Callahan whisks it out of his fingers. “Our just-in-case backup is as secure as it can reasonably be.”  
“Best of the options available.” Tallulah says, mostly to herself, as Raven stands up to open the window for the sunrise before taking a seat on her wife’s lap and displacing Tallulah’s precious tteokbokki. Tallulah flicks her nose in retribution before she gets comfortable and offers Raven a rice-cake, the shorter woman smirks and opens her mouth, then lets her wife place it on her tongue with a happy little smile.

“You two are disgustingly adorable” Arcturus says as he takes a sip of his tea, Raven just sticks out her sauce-covered tongue at him and Arcturus can’t help but laugh. This is how he wants to remember his life with his friends, not as the seven hundred year old warriors of the light, not as his Hunter buddies or the legends that some of the newer guardians are even taught about, but as his sister and her wife, his best friends.

Callahan gives a polite little chirp to let him know he has somewhat urgent notifications and Tallulah throws a tablet at him, which Arcturus barely catches one handed without spilling his tea. He gives her a glare as he signs in and reads aloud the message from Commander Zavala.  
“Fireteam: Endymion, priority reassignment, fast response stand-by. Contingency: Whitenoise.” He looks at Tallulah. “What’s Whitenoise? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that code before.”  
“Uhm…” Tallulah looks blankly into space for a second. “I think that means we only take orders from top brass on assignment; Commander probably wants us for rescue and evac now that all the scans and sweeps are done with.” She pops another rice-cake into her mouth with a smile.

Arcturus yawns and takes another sip of his tea.  
“So we have time to kill?”  
“Apparently.” Tallulah snaps her fingers and Arcturus throws the tablet back to her. Raven catches it out of the air and flicks it at the sandwich of glass and metal that constitutes their entertainment centre. The tablet and the television give a ‘ping’ as they sync, and a live Sparrow Racing League match appears right as the commentary ramps up, it’s Ariadne in the commentators box today, and despite the somewhat shady and depressing morning, Arcturus takes another drink, feels the warm liquid blossom in his throat and work it’s way down to his chest, and relaxes in the company of his two oldest friends in the world and feels the worries and the deep, dark, unpleasant thoughts just slip back in his mind.


End file.
